Conversation
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit.
- Temple, Sir William
- Temple, Sir William
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says,'there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.'A well bred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word. The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.
- Tom Blair
- Tom Blair
As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.
- James, Clive
- James, Clive
We might make a public moan in the newspapers about the decay of conscience, but in private conversation, no matter what crimes a man may have committed or how cynically he may have debased his talent or his friends, variations on the answer Yes, but I did it for the money, satisfy all but the most tiresome objections.
- Lapham, Lewis H.
- Lapham, Lewis H.
To harken to evil conversation is the road to wickedness.. (Pravis Assuescere Sermonibus Est Via Ad Rem Ipsam)
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
- La Rochefoucauld, Francois De
- La Rochefoucauld, Francois De
Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know.
- Cullen Hightower
- Cullen Hightower
For good or ill, your conversation is your advertisement. Every time you open your mouth you let men look into your mind. Do they see it well clothed, neat, busineswise?
- Bruce Burton
- Bruce Burton
A collections of anecdotes and maxims is the greatest of treasures for the man of the world, for he knows how to intersperse conversation with the former in fit places, and to recollect the latter on proper occasions.
- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von
- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von
Become aware of internal, subjective subverbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc., with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hither unconscious and uncontrollable processes
- Abraham Harold Maslow
- Abraham Harold Maslow
And when you stick on conversation's burrs, don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.
- Holmes, Oliver Wendell
- Holmes, Oliver Wendell
There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all.
- West, Rebecca
- West, Rebecca
CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
- Ambrose Bierce
- Ambrose Bierce
The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.
- William Lyon Phelps
- William Lyon Phelps
Things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don't say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo
An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation.
Conversation is three women stand on the corner talking. Gossip is when one of them leaves.
- Shriner, Herb
- Shriner, Herb
Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Marriage: a long conversation chequered by disputes.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Robert Louis Stevenson
My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets -- no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!
- Roth, Philip
- Roth, Philip


















